It's not that often when the very last sentence of an article does more to explain things than the entire preceding text.

Simple enough:

Quote:

Kelly Francis, a local government watchdog and president of the city's NAACP branch, says the city should have been shedding its staff for decades.

He says, for instance, that it was a mistake to use federal grants in the 1990s to bulk up the police department as the city's population shrunk. The federal funds eventually dried up, leaving the city to pay costs it couldn't afford.

"It seems to me there's an entitlement mentality in the city of Camden," Francis said. "It's been at least 40 years that the state's been bailing out the city."

I don't know whether to laugh or cry. How many more decades is it going to take before enough people understand how much Democrat policies have damaged the very people they are supposedly trying to help before every last Democrat is finally voted out of office and replaced by someone who not only reads, but actually understands the US Constitution and isn't possessed by a self-indulging and self-important "Yes, I'm the One to Fix Everything" complex?

You know when your city has this service that its time to move. Camden was a hell-hole when I lived in NJ in the 1970s, and it appears a bunch of money from the state and Feds over 40 years didn't change things. What a surprise.

Quote:

Garnet Grant, a city worker for 22 years, ensures that no one is inside vacant houses before he puts plywood on windows and doors to keep the homeless out.

Sitting in a big yellow box truck labeled "Board Up Crew," Grant says he knows he's not being laid off - but will likely have to do the jobs of several people in what's already a losing battle to board up homes. "We need more help," Grant said.

Detroit — Detroit Public Schools would close nearly half of its schools in the next two years, and increase high school class sizes to 62 by the following year, under a deficit-reduction plan filed with the state.

The plan, part of a monthly update Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb gives the Department of Education, was filed late Monday to provide insight into Bobb's progress in his attempt to slash a $327 million deficit in the district to zero over the next several years. Under it, the district would slim down from 142 schools now to 72 during 2012-13.